SUNNYVALE Calif. — Letter carriers and dogs usually get along pretty well in Sunnyvale, but in the last nine months, there have been seven incidents of dogs biting letter carriers. To help customers — especially young children — the Postal Service is stressing to the community the importance of preventing animal attacks.

While the country has become increasingly focused on the tragic injuries and deaths resulting from dog attacks, the Postal Service has been at the forefront of this issue for decades. Many of the OSHA recordable bites that were reported by letter carriers in 2009 came from dogs whose owners used those famous last words “my dog won’t bite.”

While the number of recent dog bites in Sunnyvale is disturbing, the most frequent victims of dog attacks are children. Children are 900 times more likely to be bitten than letter carriers. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) report that small children, the elderly, and letter carriers, in that order, are the most frequent victims. Dog attacks are the most commonly reported child­hood public health problem in the United States.

“Dog bites are a serious problem for the entire community, and not just our letter carriers,” said Sunnyvale Acting Postmaster John Silberberg. He said the recent attacks were by dogs that have owners. “The dogs were not barking or being bothered … they just came up from behind and bit the carriers.”

The community can help prevent these painful tragedies by following these four suggestions:

• Teach your dog appropriate behavior. Don’t play aggressive games with your dog such as wrestling, tug of war, or siccing your dog on another person. It’s essential that your dog recognize members of your family as dominant figures not to be challenged.
• Be a responsible pet owner. For everyone’s safety, don’t allow your dog to roam. Make your pet a mem­ber of your family. Dogs that spend too much time tethered to a dog house or in the back yard have a much greater chance of developing aggressive behavioral problems.
• Stay on the safe side. Help your dog become accustomed to a variety of situations. If you don’t know how your dog will react to a new situation, be cau­tious. If you think your dog could panic in a crowd, leave him or her at home. If your dog may overreact to visitors or delivery people, keep him or her in another room.
• Remind children to be careful when leaving the house to not let the dog out.

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no direct support from taxpayers. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500.